Book Review: Clayton Heylin's "From the Velvets to the Voidoids"

Since I shut off my cable TV, I've had a lot more time to read. I'd been working on Clinton Heylin's From the Velvets to the Voidoids: A Pre-Punk History for a Post-Punk World for a long time and finally, after a really nice day, I finished it. I went down to the park by the river, sat down and read the last few chapters. And I'm finally ready to do the first ever book review for this blog.

There's been a lot written about the New York scene of the late 70s and early 80s. It was the crucible for much of the punk explosion in the United States, and, to a certain extent, the rise of counter-culture, college radio and the “indy rock” of today. This book tackles a lot of material already covered by other authors, and does talk to and delve into the interviews of the most important people of that era. What makes this book a bit different is it's focus on some of the more important outliers of the scene, the bands that helped shape the scene but weren't necessarily the bands that “made it” or had much commercial success.

The big three obviously have to be talked about when exploring the New York scene: The Ramones, Blondie and the Talking Heads. And the important pre-cursors must also be talked about, bands like The Velvet Underground, The Stooges, the MC5 and the New York Dolls. But Heylin's focus isn't necessarily on those bands. They've been written about endlessly, and most even have their own books devoted to them. The focus here is on the bands that laid the foundation for those bands. The bands that, without them, the Ramones wouldn't even have existed, nor would they ever have had a stage to even start doing what they did.

At the centre of the New York underground scene was CBGBs. But also in the mix were other venues struggling along alongside CBGBs, and with them, a plethora of other bands. Heylin's focus are on bands like Television, and their main members, Tom Verlaine and Richard Hell. Television were one of the first post-punk bands, a band with a vision unlike a lot of punk bands and a band that influenced many, existed for a few short years, put out a seminal album, then flamed out. Bands like the Heartbreakers, where Richard Hell ended up after Television's flame out, joining former New York Doll, Johnny Thunders to make a sloppy and angular style of punk, before Thunders collapsing under the weight of his own drug addictions. Bands like Suicide, who's art-damaged, confrontational and often unlistenable music galvanized the no-wave scene that followed it.

One impressive bit about this book is the focus on the influential Cleveland bands that often found themselves in New York as a second home. The most important of these bands was Pere Ubu, fronted by the bizarre and eccentric genius David Thomas. Time is also spent with lesser known but influential bands like the Electric Eels, The Mirrors and Pere Ubu pre-cursor Rocket From the Tombs. I haven't read a book that took time to look at the Cleveland scene like this one does, and it's a welcome addition, since their contributions to post-punk are often criminally overlooked.

If the book has one weakness, it's Heylin's focus on Patti Smith. Fully a third of the book is spent talking about her career. While she is an important figure in the New York scene and in the more arty circles of post-punk and new wave, she feels out of place in a book like this. Smith was a poet first and a musician second, and her work was oddly folkish and, if I might cast aspersions, strangely pretentious. Smith is painted as a bohemian philosopher and misunderstood poet thrust into the world of music, perhaps by her own will and perhaps by forces outside her control. Her work isn't terribly punk, it wasn't terribly innovative, nor did it particularly capture the culture of the time any more than any other band. Heylin's over-focus on Smith drags the book down in places and her influence is overstated. One might blame Heylin's own pedigree as a Bob Dylan historian for this.

In the back of the book is a great discography of the bigger names. What's appreciated here is a pretty extensive list of what was available to purchase at the time of writing (1993) and an examination of live recordings and bootlegs worth checking out. The book is worth owning just for this section alone.